February 19, 2017

Phở Tintin in Nanaimo

Phở places have become ubiquitous in MetroVancouver and Jeem and G. G. Blynn were pleasantly surprised when friends from the John Harris Gallery took us to one such establishment in Nanaimo.

Phở Tintin is located in a strip mall somewhere in this Vancouver Island city. On the day of our visit the snow was piled up and much more was on its way, but not before Jim and Sherry made their escape to a more westerly locale.

The restaurant is delightfully pleasant and inviting, on the inside (on the outside, not so much). The clumsy clutter and kitschy-ness of most Vietnamese restaurants in Vancouver is not present at Phở Tintin. Not at all.

And it's exceptionally clean.

On the day of our visit Phở Tintin was not busy, due to snowfall warnings, but it's normally busy through the day and especially for lunch.

There's the usual menu with some local variations on the traditional theme, and a good number of vegetarian, or near-vegetarian dishes. The soup was hot and fragrant, though hot chili peppers were not initially provided with the sprouts.

The spring rolls were smallish to what I'm accustomed, and possibly a wee bit over cooked, but flavourful and delicious just the same.

All in all, Phở Tintin is a wonderful place, and unlike many phở restaurants, it takes credit and debit cards for payment. We'll return if ever we can find it without our friendly guides. But then again, that's what friends are for.